Elections Yukon says it's looking into the case of a proxy vote solicited by a Whitehorse Liberal candidate to see if it might be a breach of election rules.

Downtown resident Bruce Dent says he was asked by Liberal candidate Tamara Goeppel (Whitehorse Centre) to cast a proxy ballot for someone he did not know. He says Goeppel told him the person felt too "intimidated" to vote.

According to Dent, Goeppel and her campaign manager came to his door last Sunday and asked him to cast the proxy ballot.

Liberals are polling ahead according to last poll, with the Yukon Party in third and the NDP in second. But there's a huge amount of undecided voters, and there isn't a huge amount of polling (I think the last poll was done in January). So, it's anyone's race, it seems.

Quote:

The Mainstreet poll, released on Wednesday, found that if Yukoners went to the polls today, 22 per cent would vote Liberal, 11 per cent would vote NDP and six per cent would vote for the Yukon Party. The difference between the NDP and the Yukon Party is within the poll’s margin of error. Regardless, that leaves a whopping 61 per cent of voters undecided.

“In this election, fear has been an unwelcome theme,” said Liberal Leader Sandy Silver. “The Yukon Party has tried to incite fear on carbon pricing and the New Democrats have tried to incite fear about fracking. Fear is used as a strategy by political parties to divide the electorate in situations where they are not confident in their own positions. The Yukon Liberals are confident in our position.”

“The NDP does not have the confidence of or the connections with industry, especially the mining industry, to turn this around. The Yukon Liberals do,” he said. “The Yukon Party does not have the confidence of or the connections with Yukon First Nations to make this happen, and the Yukon Liberals do.”

Seems Silver is using the typical Goldilocks "just right" theme of being centred. They're open to carbon pricing, but also in favour of fracking, thus the Liberals' bowl of porridge is "just right". Reminds me of Trudeau saying that the Conservatives see terrorists everywhere while the NDP see the Charter of Rights everywhere, whereas Libs (w/Bill C-51) will be "just right". Or the environment, same thing: Trudeau often employs the balance theme for the environment and the economy, portraying the NDP as too far left and the Cons as too far right.

The Yukon New Democrats unveiled a sweeping election platform on Friday in Whitehorse, promising a different style of government, protection for the environment, and a new relationship with Yukon First Nations.

The NDP will offer "a government that believes in social justice and the well-being of all Yukoners, not just a chosen few," leader Liz Hanson told reporters gathered at the Yukon Arts Centre.

“In this election, fear has been an unwelcome theme,” said Liberal Leader Sandy Silver. “The Yukon Party has tried to incite fear on carbon pricing and the New Democrats have tried to incite fear about fracking. Fear is used as a strategy by political parties to divide the electorate in situations where they are not confident in their own positions. The Yukon Liberals are confident in our position.”

“The NDP does not have the confidence of or the connections with industry, especially the mining industry, to turn this around. The Yukon Liberals do,” he said. “The Yukon Party does not have the confidence of or the connections with Yukon First Nations to make this happen, and the Yukon Liberals do.”

Seems Silver is using the typical Goldilocks "just right" theme of being centred. They're open to carbon pricing, but also in favour of fracking, thus the Liberals' bowl of porridge is "just right". Reminds me of Trudeau saying that the Conservatives see terrorists everywhere while the NDP see the Charter of Rights everywhere, whereas Libs (w/Bill C-51) will be "just right". Or the environment, same thing: Trudeau often employs the balance theme for the environment and the economy, portraying the NDP as too far left and the Cons as too far right.

Justin was dissing the Charter? Uh...he does remember who DID the Charter, doesn't he?

Article about two recent polls. The Liberals are ahead, followed by the Yukon Party, and then the NDP in 3rd. The Libs have gained. One of the polls shows that there's not a huge gap between all three parties, whereas the other one shows the Libs with a healthy lead. The author of the blog, Lewis Rifkind, feels that both polls may not be super accurate. We'll see.

Some controversy has been heating up over a Liberal candidate's attempt to misuse proxy voting (referred to in post #3). There was an official statement from Elections Yukon (see image below). So perhaps this will affect the vote on the 7th.

Here's the unnofficial results site for the Yukon election. I think results will begin to pour in after 20:00. The Yukon is in the Pacific Time Zone, so for those in the Eastern Time Zone, the results will begin to come in at 23:00, I think.